1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, generally, to the waste disposal industry. More particularly, it relates to a cart having a detachable part for retrieving heavy containers from trash compactors and depositing them on the cart.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A small, refrigerator-size trash compactor was invented by the present inventor about eighteen years ago to fill a need in the convenience store industry. A similar compactor is now in use in the medical field; it is used in many hospitals. Typically, a single hospital will have a plurality of the compactors positioned in convenient locations throughout the facility such as in storage closets and other waste staging areas.
Although compactors fill a longstanding need, they have a few shortcomings. For example, most use a cardboard box supported by the floor of the compactor to hold the compacted waste materials, and no means are provided to facilitate emptying of the box when it is full; accordingly, the box is simply disposed of with its contents. A cardboard box full of compacted waste materials weighs about one hundred pounds, and due to its cubic configuration, it is difficult to lift and handle, creating obvious occupational hazards. Orderlies and janitors have responded to this shortcoming by retrieving the box for subsequent disposal when it is only about half full, thereby saving them the strain of lifting a hundred pound load. This practice wastes cardboard, obviously, by using about twice as much cardboard as should be used. Since it takes about seventeen fully grown, thirty five year old trees to produce a ton of cardboard, the need to avoid such waste is compelling.
The current premature and too-frequent unloading process also wastes man-hours. Even When a waste container has been prematurely unloaded, it still must be carried or transported by some means to a disposal area; presently, no satisfactory means are provided whereby the individual charged with the unloading task can unload several compactors and take a plurality of containers to the disposal area in one trip. Moreover, handling of cardboard boxes full of hospital waste is contraindicated due to the risk of puncturing a hand by an improperly disposed of needle. Finally, back injuries may be sustained by those required to lift the containers from the compactors.
Thus, there is a need for a container-retrieval means that would obviate the need for manual lifting of the containers so that the containers could be allowed to be filled to their designed capacity before removal from the compactor. Such a means would benefit the environment by reducing demand for mature trees, would reduce the man-hours required to service the compactors, and would prevent accidental punctures by improperly discarded needles.
Moreover, there is a need for a container not made from corrugated paper. An improved container would completely eliminate the need to fell trees to make waste containers. The ideal container would not only be made of a different material, it would also be reusable. However, since the trash is tightly compacted in the container, and therefore not easily dumped therefrom, the problem cannot be solved just by substituting a different material for the corrugated paper.
The needed retrieval means should also be simple to operate so that it will be used. Numerous mechanically complex mechanisms could be designed to accomplish the needed retrieval, but there is a need for an elegant, low maintenance, rugged, no-training-required apparatus that accomplishes the job effectively. However, the prior art, when considered as a whole in accordance with the requirements of law, neither teaches nor suggests how the present manual retrieval system could be improved by an apparatus that fills these stringent but desirable requirements.